Chapter 4 - The Man With the Silver Ring
Owen Pike reached the stairwell before the officers reacted.
Richard followed.
The attorney shouted his name, but Richard was already through the door.
Owen descended two steps at a time. Richard had spent years behind desks and conference tables, but fury pushed him faster than reason.
“You touched my son!”
Owen glanced back.
“You don’t understand what I prevented.”
Richard caught him on the third landing.
They struck the wall together. Owen drove an elbow into Richard’s ribs, but Richard held his coat.
“What did you put inside Ethan?”
Owen tried to break free.
“He was never supposed to survive the first surgery.”
Richard punched him.
The blow shocked both men.
Owen fell against the railing. Richard grabbed the front of his shirt.
“Who ordered you to kill him?”
“No one ordered me to kill him.”
“You drugged him and blocked his airway.”
“I was stopping the signal.”
“What signal?”
Owen looked above them.
Footsteps thundered down the stairs.
He lowered his voice.
“The device inside Ethan activated when the girl entered the terminal. It began transmitting their proximity.”
Richard’s grip loosened slightly.
“Transmitting to whom?”
Owen laughed without humor.
“You still think this is your family’s institute.”
The officers reached the landing.
Owen moved suddenly. He twisted out of Richard’s grip, jumped over the side rail, and dropped to the landing below.
His ankle buckled when he struck the concrete, but he kept moving.
An agent followed.
Richard leaned over the rail.
Owen reached the emergency exit and pushed it open.
A black vehicle waited outside.
The rear door opened before he reached it.
A gloved hand extended from within.
Owen climbed inside.
The vehicle accelerated as agents burst onto the loading ramp.
No license plates.
No visible driver.
Only a nightingale symbol painted beneath the rear window.
Richard returned to the trauma floor with blood on his knuckles.
Margaret was gone.
So were her attorneys.
Lucy sat beside Ethan’s room with two police officers nearby.
“She left when Owen ran,” Lucy said.
“Did she say anything?”
“She told me I should have stayed dead.”
Richard stopped.
“Margaret said that to you?”
Lucy nodded.
One of the officers confirmed it quietly.
“We heard her.”
Richard looked through the glass wall of Ethan’s room. His son slept beneath a white blanket, surrounded by monitors.
For years, Richard had trusted Margaret to manage the foundation while he ran Harrison Aerospace. She had overseen Ethan’s medical care after Victoria’s death. She had access to the family’s homes, schedules, and financial records.
She also knew about the device inside Ethan.
Richard called his company’s private security director.
“I need a team at my house, Ethan’s school, and every Harrison property. Margaret Shaw’s access is revoked effective immediately.”
The director hesitated.
“Sir, Mrs. Shaw’s authorization is equal to yours under the family trust.”
“Then freeze the trust.”
“I don’t have authority.”
“Find someone who does.”
Richard ended the call.
Lucy was watching him.
“You think money makes doors close.”
“Usually it does.”
“At Nightingale, money opened all of them.”
Richard sat beside her.
“Tell me what the device does.”
Lucy touched the back of her neck again.
“It records how our bodies react. Fear. Pain. Medicine. Memory.”
“What happens when two devices come close together?”
“The system wakes up.”
“Why?”
“We were separated after the fire. The devices look for each other.”
Richard tried to follow.
“Are you saying Ethan was part of the program?”
Lucy looked toward the room.
“He was the first one.”
“My son lived at home.”
“Not always.”
Richard remembered the long hospitalization after Ethan’s spinal injury. Victoria had insisted Ethan remain at the institute for three months. Richard had been in Singapore negotiating the acquisition that saved their company.
He had visited by video every night.
At least, he believed he had.
“What was Project Nightingale trying to accomplish?”
Lucy hesitated.
“To move memories.”
Richard stared at her.
“Move them where?”
“From children who were dying into children who could live.”
“That isn’t medically possible.”
“They did not care if it was possible. They cared if rich people believed it could become possible.”
Richard looked back at Ethan.
“What memory did they put in my son?”
May you like
Lucy’s answer was barely audible.
“Mine.”
